SECT. IV] PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE 205

Macbeth.

Macbeth stands in contrast throughout with
Hamlet; in the manner of opening more especi-
ally. In the latter, there is a gradual ascent
from the simplest forms of conversation to the
language of impassioned intellect—yet the intel-
lect still remaining the seat of passion; in the
former, the invocation is at once made to the
imagination and the emotions connected there-
with. Hence the movement throughout is the
most rapid of all Shakespeare's plays; and hence
also, with the exception of the disgusting pass-
age of the Porter (Act ii. sc. 3); which I dare
pledge myself to demonstrate to be an interpol-
ation of the actors, there is not, to the best
of my remembrance, a single pun or play on
words in the whole drama. I have previously
given an answer to the thousand times repeated
charge against Shakespeare upon the subject of
his punning, and I here merely mention the
fact of the absence of any puns in Macbeth as
justifying a candid doubt at least, whether, even in
these figures of speech and fanciful modifications
of language, Shakespeare may not have followed
rules and principles that merit, and would stand,
the test of philosophic examination. And hence,
also, there is an entire absence of comedy, nay,
even of irony and philosophic contemplation, in
Macbeth—the play being wholly and purely
tragic. For the same cause, there are no reason-
ings of equivocal morality, which would have
required a more leisurely state, and a conse-
quently greater activity of mind—no sophistry
of self-delusion, except only that previously to